Among the over 600 blog posts that we've shared during the past two years have been some expressions of Jewish life and culture in places where you wouldn't expect it. From now on when we encounter one of these, we'll post it under a new category: Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places.
Today's post is one of these -- a choir in the city of Busan, South Korea made what we would consider an unusual choice for a musical piece to perform -- Hevenu Shalom Aleichem.
Checking with Wikipedia, we found that Jewish Life in Korea was almost nonexistent until American Jewish soldiers arrived with the start of the Korean war.
As Wikipedia puts it,
The first sizable Jewish presence in Korea was during the Korean War, when hundreds of Jewish soldiers participated in the American-led effort to repel a communist attempt to control the whole peninsula. Among the participants was Chaim Potok, who served as a chaplain. His experiences in Korea led to the book, The Book of Lights and I am the Clay.
Most of the Jewish community in South Korea resides in Seoul. The community is mostly U.S. military personnel and their families, business people, English-language journalists and teachers, and tourists. The Jewish population is constantly in flux, due to the rotation of U.S. military personnel in the country. While the soldiers have a Jewish chaplain at the Yongsan Army Base, their services are restricted and off-limits to most civilians. At this time, there are no Jewish schools, but a Chabad Rabbi has arrived in Seoul in Passover 2008.
Israel has full diplomatic relations with South Korea, and the sizable Christian population in the country also keeps ties strong between the countries. In August 2005, the Jerusalem Summit promoting Christian support for Israel was held in Seoul. In contrast, neighboring North Korea has no known Jews within its borders, and is openly hostile towards Israel, and currently forbids Israeli tourists and visitors, however Jews of other nationalities (except American) are not banned to enter.
In April 2008, the first Chabad House was established in Seoul under direction of Rabbi Osher Litzman, accompanied by his wife, Mussia Litzman. As there were no synagogues in the country, Jews in Korea would have to go to the U.S. Army base for Shabbat meals and holiday services. Chabad.org news service reported that the Israeli ambassador to South Korea asked three visiting Lubavitch yeshiva students to help arrange for permanent Chabad emissaries. This marks a monumental and welcomed change in South Korea's Jewish history.
We couldn't find any Jewish reference to Busan, where the concert was held. But the choir did a good job with the traditional Hebrew song of welcome. Enjoy!
(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS: THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY. YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)
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Funny they don't look Jewish! But they sing Hebrew better than some American Jews.
ReplyDeleteAl,
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time, when non-Jewish entertainers performed Heiveinu Shalom Aleichem or Hava Nagila, they were paying tribute to their Jewish audience. I no longer believe that to be true. These two melodies have a musical entertainment value that transcends all ethnicity.
By the way, since you post these events so regularly, did you not notice that this groups chorale arrangement of the melody is far superior to anything we've heard before?
Just beautiful! It is also a tribute to their own personal approach to Music and the skills and discipline to deliver it so magnificantly! BRAVO.....and thank-you,AL........M.A.
ReplyDeleteThis post got a lot of "likes". And for good reasons. Watch for their rendition of Hava Nagila in a post coming soon. They sing beautifully and their Hebrew prononuciation is very good.
ReplyDeleteWhat a surprise!! It is our pleaseure to be posted one of our concert in this blog. I'm Y.S.Chang, Chief of Busan Harmony Choir.(www.bsharmony.com) We are an amature choir in Busan, Korea who are consisted teacher, doctor, professor, business man, salary man, housekeeper, student etc. The concert was held 25 June, 2011 as our 8th regural concert and it was 60th year since Korean War. The theme of concert was 'PEACE'.
ReplyDeleteBy this blog, I learned about Jewish history in Korea and became known a little about some of Jewish mind against Korean.
As you may known, Korea has similar historical pain with Jewish. A lot of countries invaild to Korea continuosly for more than 1,000years, espcially many of Korean (Chosun dynesty) young man and ladies were draggd to China (Qing Dynesty) 450years ago by the failure of war with Qing (China). Also, Japanese invalid to Korea so many times. Finally, Korean War broken out in 1950 and seperated South and North Korea. By the Korean War, a lot of people died and their relatives were broken up.
Now, all of Korean knows the value of 'Peace' very well as much as Jewish. So, I think both of people have common thinking about 'Peace'.
When we sing 'Hevenue Shalom Aleichem', we could feel Jewish wish.
Anyway, it is good opportunity for me to understand about Jewish and thanks for your posting out concert.
(Very very sorry that my English ability is so poor..)
Extraordinary. The comments by Y.S.Chang were beautiful and poignant. We need more cultural and artistic exchange among all nations to foster peace and caring. Having been to Seoul and other parts of Korea on several occasions, and recently doing business with e-Land hospital in Seoul, I look forward to more posts of beautiful and meaningful events in this special country and visiting my friends and business associates in the near future..
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